Scalia, the Church, and Moral Quietism: A Response to Tom

Like Tom, I think that several of Justice Scalia's arguments in his Pew Forum speech (which I remember well, in part because I was present at the event) are not convincing.  (In particular, I think that Justice Scalia's argument that if the death penalty is immoral, Catholics must resign from the bench, is quite weak).  And, I agree with Tom that the Church should not stay its teaching hand -- on a matter where the Church has a clear message to impart and that is not so technical or fact-bound that the Church's leaders probably lack the necessary expertise or competence  -- simply because most people (or even most Catholics) will disagree.  Tom continues:

[T]he very fact that the Pope didn't claim his anti-death-penalty exhortations were formally binding is all the more reason, it seems to me, to encourage them as moral statements.  The Pope took a moral stand and invited others to join him on that path solely on the basis of his arguments, without suggesting that those arguments were ecclesiastically binding.   

Justice Scalia's logic seemed to be that unless the Church is ready to label a public moral issue as one of those very few that are foundational or non-negotiable, then it should make no moral statements at all on the issue that would be politically unpopular (and thus "imprudent").  I always found that to be a strikingly extreme position of Christian timidity (and probably -- though theologians can correct me on this -- a degraded notion of "prudence").

I largely agree, but do have these concerns:  "Non-binding" moral arguments, made by bishops who are (Catholics believe) the successors to the Apostles and charged by Christ with teaching and guarding the faith, are (I worry) likely to be (a) misunderstood by those who hear them as "pronouncements" or "dictates", or (b) misused by Bishops (and bishops' conferences) seeking to promote a particular policy position by exploiting their position and moral authority, or (c) misused by those who happen to agree with the arguments, but couldn't care less about the Bishops and their teaching role.  These are not reasons for "quietism", but they are reasons (it seems to me) for caution.